Authorities in Andhra Pradesh have taken note of an incident of police high-handedness after a viral video from Kakinada showed two traffic police constables slapping and kicking two men on a busy street. The incident happened on the night of November 1 but came to light almost a week later, with the video being shared widely on messaging platforms. Kakinada Deputy Superintendent of Police(DSP) for Law and Order, Bheema Reddy, told reporters on Thursday that the behaviour of the constables was “not correct” and goes against the “policy of people-friendly policing.”
According to reports, the two men who were being beaten up, had been drunk at the time of the incident. They had gotten into a brawl with a couple and had misbehaved with a woman and abused and assaulted traffic police officials when they intervened, police said.
On the night of November 1, the two men, Abbireddy Krishna Chaitanya Reddy and Penumalla Subba Reddy, were on a bike at the Sarpavaram junction in Kakinada Rural area, when they hit a car from behind, Sarpavaram police said. They then entered into an argument with the couple who was in the car. As the brawl escalated, the two men seized the keys from the car, and even misbehaved with the woman in the car by holding her hand and dragging her, police said.
When the traffic police tried to intervene, the two men abused and shoved a constable, and even punched a Sub-Inspector leading to injuries, according to the police. Following this, the constables then dragged them to a nearby police vehicle. The video shows them aggressively dragging the two men, punching and slapping them. As one of the men fell to the ground, one of the constables is seen kicking him.
Watch the video below:
The two men have been booked under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and Section 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) based on a complaint from the woman in the car. They have since been arrested and sent to remand.
After the video went viral and drew flak, the DSP has said that an inquiry will be held into the incident which has been taken to the notice of higher authorities, including the Superintendent of Police (SP) of East Godavari district. The DSP has claimed that appropriate action will be taken against the constables.